This year’s Malatya Film Festival will feature more foreign films, Mayor Ulvi Saran has said. There will be movies from Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Korea, China and Iran at this year’s festival, he said. “We would like to make Malatya a film plateau for directors and producers,” said Saran, noting that the festival served this goal.

Last year a total of 130 films were included in the festival, and this year they hoped the number would rise to 150 movies, he said.

The festival also has begun accepting applications for short films and will continue to do so until the Sept. 16 application deadline. The festival has slowly been gaining recognition among international film fests thanks to its quaint location and rosters of noteworthy films.

The festival is being held for the third time this year and will continue to host a national short film competition.

The national short film competition was organized to support and encourage short film production among young directors. The winner will receive a prize of 5,000 Turkish Liras during the festival’s award ceremony.

Malatya will welcome film stars, directors and movie aficionados for the festival from Nov. 9 to 15. Last year the Short Film Jury Special Prize went to “Toros Canavarı” (The Monster of Toros).